Abrasive compacts are used extensively in cutting, milling, grinding, drilling and other abrasive operations. The abrasive compacts typically consist of polycrystalline diamond or cubic boron nitride particles bonded into a coherent hard conglomerate. The abrasive particle content of abrasive compacts is high and there is an extensive amount of direct particle-to-particle bonding. Abrasive compacts are made under elevated temperature and pressure conditions at which the abrasive particle, be it diamond or cubic boron nitride, is crystallographically stable.
Abrasive compacts tend to be brittle and, in use, they are frequently supported by being bonded to a cemented carbide substrate. Such supported abrasive compacts are known in the art as composite abrasive compacts. The composite abrasive compact may be used as such in the working surface of an abrasive tool. Alternatively, particularly in drilling and mining operations, it has been found advantageous to bond the composite abrasive compact to an elongated cemented carbide pin to produce what is known as a stud cutter. The stud cutter is then mounted in the working surface of a drill bit or a mining pick.
Fabrication of the composite is typically achieved by placing a cemented carbide substrate into the container of a press. A mixture of diamond grains or diamond grains and catalyst binder is placed atop the substrate and compressed under high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) conditions. In so doing, metal binder migrates from the substrate and "sweeps" through the diamond grains to promote a sintering of the diamond grains. As a result, the diamond grains become bonded to each other to form a diamond layer, and that diamond layer is bonded to the substrate along a conventionally planar interface. Metal binder remains disposed in the diamond layer within pores defined between the diamond grains.
A composite formed in the above-described manner may be subject to a number of shortcomings. For example, the coefficients of thermal expansion and elastic constants of cemented carbide and diamond are close but not exactly the same. Thus, during heating or cooling of the polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC), thermally induced stresses occur at the interface between the diamond layer and the cemented carbide substrate, the magnitude of these stresses being dependent on the disparity in thermal expansion coefficients and elastic constants.
Another potential shortcoming which should be considered relates to the creation of internal stresses within the diamond layer which can result in a fracturing of that layer. Such stresses also result from the presence of the cemented carbide substrate and are distributed according to the size, geometry and physical properties of the cemented carbide substrate and the polycrystalline diamond layer.
European Patent Application No. 0133 386 suggests PDC in which the polycrystalline diamond body is completely free of metal binders and is to be mounted directly on a metal support. However, the mounting of a diamond body directly on metal presents significant problems relating to the inability of the metal to provide sufficient support for the diamond body. The European Patent Application further suggests the use of spaced ribs on the bottom surface of the diamond layer which are to be embedded in the metal support.
According to the European Patent Application, the irregularities can be formed in the diamond body after the diamond body has been formed, e.g., by laser or electronic discharge treatment, or during the formation of the diamond body in a press, e.g., by the use of a mold having irregularities. As regards the latter, it is further suggested that a suitable mold could be formed of cemented carbide; in such case, however, metal binder would migrate from the mold and into the diamond body, contrary to the stated goal of providing a metal free diamond layer. The reference proposes to mitigate this problem by immersing the thus-formed diamond/carbide composite in an acid bath which would dissolve the carbide mold and leach all metal binder from the diamond body. There would thus result a diamond body containing no metal binder and which would be mounted directly on a metal support. Notwithstanding any advantages which may result from such a structure, significant disadvantages still remain, as explained below.
In sum, the European Patent Application proposes to eliminate the problems associated with the presence of a cemented carbide substrate and the presence of metal binder in the diamond layer by completely eliminating the cemented carbide substrate and the metal binder. However, even though the absence of metal binder renders the diamond layer more thermally stable, it also renders the diamond layer less impact resistant. That is, the diamond layer is more likely to be chipped by hard impacts, a characteristic which presents serious problems during the drilling of hard substances such as rock.
It will also be appreciated that the direct mounting of a diamond body on a metal support will not, in itself, alleviate the previously noted problem involving the creation of stresses at the interface between the diamond and metal, which problem results from the very large disparity in the coefficients of thermal expansion between diamond and metal. For example, the thermal expansion coefficient of diamond is about 45.times.10.sup.-7 cm/cm/.degree. C. as compared to a coefficient of 150-200.times.10.sup.-7 cm/cm/.degree. C. for steel. Thus, very substantial thermally induced stresses will occur at the interface. In addition, once the portions of the diamond which do not carry the ribs begin to wear sufficiently to expose the metal therebehind, that metal will wear rapidly, due to its relative ductility and lower abrasion/erosion resistance, and undermine the integrity of the bond between the diamond and the metal support.
Recently, various PDC structures have been proposed in which the diamond/carbide interface contains a number of ridges, grooves or other indentations aimed at reducing the susceptibility of the diamond/carbide interface to mechanical and thermal stresses. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,023, a PDC includes an interface having a number of alternating grooves and ridges, the top and bottom of which are substantially parallel with the compact surface and the sides of which are substantially perpendicular the compact surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,637 provides a PDC having an interface containing discrete, spaced recesses extending into the cemented carbide layer, the recesses containing abrasive material (e.g., diamond) and being arranged in a series of rows, each recess being staggered relative to its nearest neighbor in an adjacent row. It is asserted in the '637 patent that as wear reaches the diamond/carbide interface, the recesses, filled with diamond, wear less rapidly than the cemented carbide and act, in effect, as cutting ridges or projections. When the PDC is mounted on a stud cutter, as shown in FIG. 5 of the '637 patent, the wear plane 38 exposes carbide regions 42 which wear much more rapidly than the diamond material in the recesses 18. As a consequence, depressions develop in these regions between the diamond filled recesses. The '637 patent asserts that these depressed regions, which expose additional edges of diamond material, enhance the cutting action of the PDC.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,207 presents an alternative PDC structure having a number of recesses in the carbide layer, each filled with diamond, which make up a spiral or concentric circular pattern, looking down at the disc shaped compact. Thus, the '207 structure differs from the '637 structure in that, rather than employing a large number of discrete recesses, the '207 structure uses one or a few elongated recesses which make up a spiral or concentric circular pattern. FIG. 5 in the '207 patent shows the wear plane which develops when the PDC is mounted and used on a stud cutter. As with the '637 patent, the wear process creates depressions in the carbide material between the diamond filled recesses. Like the '207 patent, the '637 patent also asserts that these depressions which develop during the wear process enhance cutting action.
Whereas the aforementioned patents assert a desirable cutting action in the rock, it is also highly desirable to minimize the diamond layer's susceptibility to fracture and spalling which in part arises from the internal residual stresses.
Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to provide a polycrystalline diamond compact having increased resistance to diamond spalling fractures.